7/17: New at the library this week

Movies:

Books:

Smoke screen / Sandra Brown
When newswoman Britt Shelley wakes up to find herself in bed with Jay Burgess, a rising star detective in the Charleston PD, she remembers nothing of how she got there…or of how Jay wound up dead.
Handsome and hard-partying, Jay was a hero of the disastrous fire that five years earlier had destroyed Charleston’s police headquarters. The blaze left seven people dead, but the death toll would have been much higher if not for the bravery of Jay and three other city officials who risked their lives to lead others to safety.
Firefighter Raley Gannon, Jay’s lifelong friend, was off-duty that day. Though he might not have been a front-line hero, he was assigned to lead the investigation into the cause of the fire. It was an investigation he never got to complete. Because on one calamitous night, Raley’s world was shattered.
Scandalized, wronged by the people he trusted most, Raley was forced to surrender the woman he loved and the work to which he’d dedicated his life. For five years his resentment against the men who exploited their hero status to further their careers — and ruin his — had festered, but he was helpless to set things right.
That changes when he learns of Jay Burgess’s shocking death and Britt Shelley’s claim that she has no memory of her night with him. As the investigation into Jay’s death intensifies, and suspicion against Britt Shelley mounts, Raley realizes that the newswoman, Jay’s last sexual conquest, might be his onlychance to get personal vindication — and justice for the seven victims of the police station fire.
But there are powerful men who don’t want to address unanswered questions about the fire and who will go to any lengths to protect their reputations. As Raley and Britt discover more about what happened that fateful day, the more perilous their situation becomes, until they’re not only chasing after the truth but running for their lives. (large print; read an excerpt)Handle with care / Jodi Picoult
When Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe’s daughter, Willow, is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, they are devastated – she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. As the family struggles to make ends meet to cover Willow’s medical expenses, Charlotte thinks she has found an answer. If she files a wrongful birth lawsuit against her ob/gyn for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the monetary payouts might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. But it means that Charlotte has to get up in a court of law and say in public that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance – words that her husband can’t abide, that Willow will hear, and that Charlotte cannot reconcile. And the ob/gyn she’s suing isn’t just her physician – it’s her best friend. (large print; read an excerpt)

The scarecrow / Michael Connelly
Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paperto write the definitive murder story of his career.
He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow’s so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent.
Jack is soon running with his biggest story since The Poetmade his career years ago. He is tracking a killer who operates completely below police radar–and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Including Jack’s. (large print)

South of Broad / Pat Conroy(large print)
Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Broad gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo’s older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge X; and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades-from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. (large print; read an excerpt)

Ice cold / Tess Gerritsen
In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they’re stranded with no help in sight.
As night falls, the group seeks refuge from the blizzard in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come: Meals sit untouched on tables, cars are still parked in garages. The town’s previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness—someone who is watching Maura and her friends.
Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless—and the chilling truth about Maura’s fate. (read an excerpt)

In search of Alaska’s best fly-fishing / Dan Heiner

One hand for yourself, one for the ship : the essentials of
single-handed sailing / Tristan Jones
A course on single-handed sailing by the man most qualified to give it. It is a highly personal perspective on both the science and art of this ultimate challenge, and it bears the unmistakable stamp of one who has lived on and for the sea.

Singlehanded sailing : the experiences and techniques of the lone voyagers / Richard Henderson
Offers an account of the experiences and techniques of the lone voyagers, and penetrating insights into the psychology of singlehanders, their vessels, gear, strategies, and techniques, plus vivid accounts of emergency experiences alone against the elements. The information is absorbing in its own right, but also of obvious value to a larger audience of cruising sailors who occasionally find themselves sailing singlehanded or shorthanded. Combined with a wealth of practical information is an overriding sense of the camaraderie of the sea, and Henderson’s steadying hand as a master sailor and teacher. (Table of Contents)

Racing through paradise : a Pacific passage / William F. Buckley
The third of Bill Buckley’s brilliant sailing books, chronicling his 4,000-mile voyage across the Pacific with four close friends, including his son and a photographer. 150 black-and-white and 35 color photographs.

Atlantic high : a celebration / William F. Buckley
William F. Buckley Jr.’s account of his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in the sailboat Sealestial, Atlantic High is a work that everywhere evidences Buckley’s love for sailing and good companionship. Infused with his inimitable wit and supported by a rich fund of anecdotes and observations, Atlantic High is truly a one-of-a-kind work.

The world’s best sailboats : a survey / Ferenc Maté
Its unique format includes over 400 spectacular color photographs by the world’s leading nautical photographers coupled with astutely presented technical information on the best and most beautiful sailboats manufactured. Máté’s insistence on uncompromising quality and his always engaging, entertaining style make this a timeless work and must-reading for anyone interested in sailboats. Its encyclopedic scope covering all aspects of sailboat design and construction, gleaned from personal visits to the world’s best boatyards and interviews with the leading builders and designers, gives us not only a feast for the eyes and the stuff of dreams but also a thorough education.
Máté visited the world’s best boat builders from Finland to Italy, from Maine to California, and in his book evaluates and describes the sailboats of the nineteen best yards. The text is full of technical information on design and construction of available boats, while the magnificent color photos celebrate the beauty of sailboats and fine craftsmanship. His writing, as always is both informative and entertaining. (Table of Contents)

Raptors, fossils, fins & fangs : a prehistoric creature feature / Ray Troll
Trilobites, fish with legs, weird prehistoric sharks, and fearsome dinosaurs coexist peaceably in the coolest paleontology book to come along this millennium. Long ago, a fish made its way out of the ocean and onto dry land. It was one small step for a fish, but one giant leap for fishkind—and it led to all sorts of interesting creatures like, well, people. Yes, Raptors, Fossils, Fins & Fangs dares to say the “e” word to children: that’s evolution. That’s life. After all, it’s the lucky fish who gets the cheeseburger. (Age Range: 7)

Apple-lovers’ cook book / Shirley Munson; Jo Nelson
This book tells you about the history of apples, the many varieties, and how to choose them, in addition to delicious recipes.

Flower on the precipice / Tite Kubo
With reports of powerful intruders defeating a number of lieutenants, the inner sanctum of the Soul Society–the Seireitei, the home of the Shinigami–is put on a state of high alert. Matters are further compounded by the mysterious death of a prominent captain. Is his death a cover-up to prevent a valuable secret from being exposed? Meanwhile, Ichigo confronts Kenpachi Zaraki, captain of the Eleventh Division, and by far the most brutal fighter in the Seireitei! (Bleach 12; young adult)

The undead / Tite Kubo
Chad has stormed his way into the heart of the Soul Society, the Seireitei, only to meet his match in the devastatingly efficient Captain Kyo-raku. Meanwhile, Ichigo struggles in his battle against Kenpachi Zaraki, the captain of the 11th Division. Although Ichigo succeeds in drawing blood, the secret of Kenpachi’s Zanpakuto- may be his undoing. Before Ichigo realizes it, Kenpachi’s blade has pierced his heart! (Bleach 13; young adult)

White tower rocks / Tite Kubo
Ichigo and Yoruichi race to save Ichigo’s friends from Rukia’s cold-blooded brother, Byakuya Kuchiki. They arrive to find Ganju in tatters, and Rukia with him. Ichigo is bent on defeating her brother this time, but he is nowhere near prepared. Can he learn decades’ worth of skill in just a matter of days? (Bleach 14; young adult)

Night of Wijnruit / Tite Kubo
The scheduled execution of former Shinigami Rukia Kuchiki has been moved up and is now just hours away. Meanwhile, the Soul Society is in chaos, with Shinigami drawing swords against one other. Something is rotting at the core of the Soul Society, but who, or what, could be behind it? (Bleach 16; young adult)

Rosa Rubicundior, Lilio Candidior / Lilio Candidior
The rebellion within the Soul Society grows as doubts spread about the death sentence of ex-Shinigami Rukia Kuchiki. Determined to save her, Rukia’s childhood friend Renji vows to cut down the Captain of his own division, unaware of the terrifying fate that awaits him. (Bleach 17; young adult)

The deathberry returns / Tite Kubo
The execution of Ichigo’s friend, Rukia has begun, yet Ichigo himself is nowhere in sight. In a matter of seconds, the power of one million Zanpakuto- will slice through Rukia as punishment for sharing her Shinigami powers with Ichigo. Is this really how things are going to end?! (Bleach 18; young adult)

The black moon rising / Tite Kubo
The long-awaited showdown between Ichigo and Byakuya Kuchiki has finally begun. Has Ichigo succeeded in mastering Bankai, the highest level of power that a Shinigami can attain, to face Byakuya as an equal? (Bleach 19; young adult)

The glass rainbow/ James Lee Burke
Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered. While the crimes have all the telltale signs of a serial killer, the death of Bernadette Latiolais, a high school honor student, doesn’t fit: she is not the kind of hapless and marginalized victim psychopaths usually prey upon. Robicheaux and his best friend, Clete Purcel, confront Herman Stanga, a notorious pimp and crack dealer whom both men despise. When Stanga turns up dead shortly after a fierce beating by Purcel, in front of numerous witnesses, the case takes a nasty turn, and Clete’s career and life are hanging by threads over the abyss.
Adding to Robicheaux’s troubles is the matter of his daughter, Alafair, on leave from Stanford Law to put the finishing touches on her novel. Her literary pursuit has led her into the arms of Kermit Abelard, celebrated novelist and scion of a once prominent Louisiana family whose fortunes are slowly sinking into the corruption of Louisiana’s subculture. Abelard’s association with bestselling ex-convict author Robert Weingart, a man who uses and discards people like Kleenex, causes Robicheaux to fear that Alafair might be destroyed by the man she loves. As his daughter seems to drift away from him, he wonders if he has become a victim of his own paranoia. But as usual, Robicheaux’s instincts are proven correct and he finds himself dealing with a level of evil that is greater than any enemy he has confronted in the past. (Dave Robicheaux Series #18)

I want to speak Russian!/ Janna Lelchuk
This is a textbook for the Russian Language. It covers three levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The book makes Russian easy and fun: together with Russian characters, Vera and Vadim, you will experience Russian life. The vocabulary is based on every day life, and grammar is presented in “simple charts”. The book eliminates a lot of unnecesassary detailes of complex Russian grammar and concentrates around the most important things that everyone who wants to speak Russian needs to know.

Take me there / Susane Colasanti
Rhiannon is devastated after the breakup with her boyfriend and wants him back. Nicole’s ex is still pining for her, but she can’t help having a new crush. And then there is James, hopelessly in love with Rhiannon, who can’t see that their friendship can be so much more. Just when things couldn’t get more complicated, the school’s resident mean girl decides she is intent on ruining everyone’s life. James, Nicole, and Rhiannon are not going to let this slide, but will their desire to take down the mean girl bring these three friends exactly what they want? (Age Range: Young Adult)

Waiting for you / Susane Colasanti
At the beginning of her sophomore year, Marisa is ready for a fresh start and, more importantly, a boyfriend. So when the handsome and popular Derek asks her out, Marisa thinks her long wait for happiness is over. But several bumps in the road—including her parents’ unexpected separation, a fight with her best friend, and a shocking disappointment in her relationship with Derek—test Marisa’s ability to maintain her new outlook. Only the anonymous DJ, whose underground podcasts have the school’s ear, seems to understand what Marisa is going through. But she has no idea who he is—or does she? (Age Range: Young Adult)

Keeping the moon / Sarah Dessen
Fifteen-year-old Colie is spending the summer with her eccentric Aunt Mira while her mother travels. Formerly chubby and still insecure, Colie has built a shell around herself. But her summer with her aunt, her aunt’s tenant Norman, and her friends at the Last Chance Diner teaches her some important lessons about friendship and learning to love yourself. (Age Range: Young Adult)

Along for the ride / Sarah Dessen
It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.
A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend. (Age Range: Young Adult)

Snowbound / Blake Crouch
For Will Innis and his daughter, Devlin, the loss was catastrophic. Every day for the past five years, they wonder where she is, if she is—Will’s wife, Devlin’s mother—because Rachael Innis vanished one night during an electrical storm on a lonely desert highway, and suspected of her death, Will took his daughter and fled.
Now, Will and Devlin live under different names in another town, having carved out a new life for themselves as they struggle to maintain some semblance of a family.
When one night, a beautiful, hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep, they fear the worst, but she hasn’t come to arrest Will. “I know you’re innocent,” she tells him, “because Rachael wasn’t the first…or the last.”
Desperate for answers, Will and Devlin embark on a terrifying journey that spans four thousand miles from the desert southwest to the wilds of Alaska, heading unaware into the heart of a nightmare, because the truth is infinitely worse than they ever imagined. (read an excerpt)

Honestly dearest, you’re dead / Jack Fredrickson
A lawyer calls Dek with a fast, seven-hundred dollar proposition. A dead client named Dek to execute her will. No matter that Dek didn’t know the woman. No matter, too, that the woman’s estate was only worth a few hundred. Happens all the time, the lawyer said.
To Dek Elstrom, broke and huddling in a cold stone turret in the middle of February, the sound of seven hundred falling down his chimney is louder than his voice of reason. He agrees, heads up to a hamlet ten miles north of nowhere. But instead of finding an easy-to-close estate, he finds blood and the markers of a shattered life. And something worse: links to the darkest part of his own past. He races to chase down leads to the killer, and his own ghost…before the dead woman is killed again.

Agatha Christie’s secret notebooks : fifty years of mysteries in the making / John Curran
With the blessing of Mathew Pritchard, Christie’s grandson and literary executor, Curran spent years sifting through seventy-three numbered, but otherwise uncategorized handwritten notebooks gathering dust in the author’s old home, teasing out enticing morsels that suggest the methods by which Christie came up with her fiendish plots. The answer: not so much outright planning, but, rather, trial and error, with many characters’ names changing over drafts, and even, at times, a last-minute change of ending: “her strengths lay in her unfettered mental fertility and her lack of system,” Curran states, proving it with excerpts of notes ranging from The ABC Murders to Murder in Mesopotamia.
Lest this book be regarded merely as catnip for hardcore fans, Curran has some genuine surprises in store for sceptical readers. For one, he lets his tongue loose on Christie’s weaker efforts, citing “another unfortunate, and utterly unbelievable coincidence” that nearly derails The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side, and the “jarring note” the tacked-on ending strikes in an otherwise “near-perfect” A Murder Is Announced. For another, the last Marple novel,Sleeping Murder, was long thought to be written in 1940, sealed in a vault until its publication a year after Christie’s 1976 death. With detection skills straight from Poirot’s “little gray cells” playbook, Curran shifts the probable date of composition by nearly a decade, closer to 1950.
Finally, Curran’s most astonishing feat is his discovery of two long-hidden short stories: “The Incident at the Dog’s Ball”, a charming early period Poirot story Christie never attempted to publish before she expanded it into the novel Dumb Witness; and an earlier, completely different and more politically pointed version of “The Capture of Cerberus”, complete with references to Hitler and Poirot’s open admiration of the female form! The net effect of Curran’s years-long project is a virtual pilgrimage to the Christie homestead, sweeping readers up in his quest for the secrets that underpin Agatha Christie’s mysterious literary logic.mysteries in the making / John Curran

[Note: All synopses are provided by the publisher unless otherwise noted and do not constitute reviews by the Seldovia Public Library.]